Treasures of the Kingdom There are depths to our salvation we may have superficially explored but we have never dug deep enough to uncover them in their fullness. I am not sure we can, in this world and in this life, fully open the treasures of the love that redeemed us. One day we will understand so much more, and we will have eons to see the whole picture, but for now, we live, move and have our being through faith in Jesus Christ, favored with God’s abounding Grace, and, for now, it is sufficient... It was a longing the patriarchs and the prophets looked into. They had received the promise of the Seed and they desired it in every generation. When He finally came, they did not recognize Him, and so they rejected him in the day of their visitation. You see, they looked on Him as one of their own and they did not want one of their own. They wanted the warrior Messiah, the son of David, the Lion of Judah that would destroy their enemies and restore Israel to its greatness. They did not recognize Him as the Lamb of God, the ultimate sacrifice, the humble servant, the Word that was made flesh, the Seed of the virgin that produced God incarnate, Redeemer, Savior, Mighty God, Prince of Peace... They saw Him as a teacher who stepped on their traditions and defied their doctrines. They saw Him as a prophet but resisted His Words. Israel had just passed through four hundred years of prophetic silence, when there was no prophet in the land, no voice that spoke for God, no anointed one, and no wise one...until John the Baptist introduced Jesus to the seekers at the Jordan River… This introduction ushered in Israel's last days in the Old Testament Dispensation. To prepare the way for Messiah, the people were encouraged, indeed urged, to repent and return to God as a people and as a nation. God would have poured out His favor upon all Israel if they had received the King of Heaven when He sat at their tables - spoke in their Temple and taught them on their mountains. Many did – many more did not… Then, in 30 A.D., He was crucified on trumped up charges – insurrection against Rome – issued by the authority of Pontius Pilate who led the way to thousands of Jews being charged with such insurrection in the centuries that followed. Of course, by the third century, Caesar had become Pope (Father of the people, head of the Church) and many heads began to roll while Rome gathered its political and spiritual authority by brute force from all the lands of the Holy Roman Empire, and in time, all of Europe. By the year 476 A.D. the Holy Roman Empire had disappeared, replaced by the Holy Roman Catholic Church, an empire more evil and far more deadly than its predecessor… In 70 and 130 A.D. Israel paid the price for rejecting their Messiah - the dispersion of the sons and daughters of Israel. They would live and die in the lands of the Gentiles for nineteen hundred years, rejected and scorned as He had been. They roamed from land to land, governed and occupied by the dictates and dignitaries of the Catholic Church who ruled kings of nations as well as local magistrates. Every where they wandered, the Jews were condemned without compassion, accused without a cause, and driven out without a new place of welcome to go to… The Christians were taught to hate the Jews as Christ killers, and the Jews learned to distrust and hate the Christians who murdered without conscience, stole without apology, and blasphemed the religion of the Jews as heresy. Heinous crimes were consistently performed against the Jews while hell enlarged itself to receive and accommodate the haters, the blasphemers, the accusers of the brethren and the thieves that stole their goods. And all the while, these arrogant criminals called themselves, “Christian”… How many “Christians” did Rome sacrifice during the Middle Ages to the lies, the deceptions, and the broken covenants with God’s Word? How many Crusaders died and went to hell because of Rome’s greed? How many Arabs were deceived and slaughtered during the Crusades? How many Jews and Christians were slaughtered in Rome’s quest to possess Jerusalem? And how many Jews died in the fear, the loneliness and the utter hopelessness of their European wanderings? Hell continued to enlarge itself… The Reformation that drove Rome out of Europe and back to Rome came too late to save tens of thousands during the inquisitions, but it came in time to save the Jews from complete annihilation. By 1492, as Christopher Columbus prepared to set sail with the blessings of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella, the Spanish Inquisition was underway in Spain. With the permission of the Royal House, the Church ordered dead Jews to be brought up out of their graves and their long dead bones put on trial. According to the Church of Rome, the dead man was found guilty of heresy or insurrection against Rome and all his goods and lands were confiscated by the Catholic Church. As a result, their families were left penniless and destitute. Meanwhile, men of earth and kings of nations allowed such things to take place without lifting a finger to stop it. But God saw, God heard, and God opened a door to the West for the Jews and the persecuted Protestant Christians of Europe to go through until the time came when Jewish descendants would return to their own Holy Land. I find it interesting that while dead Jews were placed on mock trials in Spain, Columbus was sailing away from Spain, as if God were rejecting that nation, saying, “I will not bear the offenses of this place any longer. I will take my people out of these lands to a new world I have chosen for them” Nevertheless, it would be another 100 years before the first landing at Jamestown, Virginia in 1607, when America entered into Covenant with Almighty God, followed by the second landing at Plymouth, Massachusetts in 1620. As the Jews migrated to the new world, they were received, accepted and appreciated by the Christian pilgrims in the new world as the Chosen People of God. At last, the Jews had found a place of favor, and the Christians, the genuine Christians, had found a refuge with spiritual freedom. They would still have enemies to face and to fight, but it would be a cake walk compared to the trials of Europe. America became evangelistic in character and by reputation, sending missionaries to every continent on the earth. The Jews became our friends, our neighbors, our co-workers, our landlords, etc., and we learned to love one another without the suspicions of the past, or the lies of the troublemakers. The day will come when they will believe our testimony and experience Christ in all His glory within their own being… Man begins with a spiritual need, a longing, a cry and a brokenness of the heart. Brokenness produces the fruit of repentance that produces the plea for forgiveness and redemption. This searching and these longings can be laid upon none other than Jesus Christ, Son of God and Son of Man, who is the whole of our need... He hears the whispers of the heart, as He heard them in the heart of Hannah, mother of Samuel. He hears the cry of repentance as He heard it in the brothers of Joseph. And when He hears, He answers with so much love the human heart cannot contain it all. What brings us to such need? What stirs it within us? What is it – or who is it that breaks our hearts and fills our soul with such longing we are brought to the altar of tears? It has to be the Holy Spirit who moves by the will of God. It is God calling us - the last call for some - loving us so much we can’t help falling apart. His voice, His touch, laced with so much tenderness we can’t resist. We don’t want to. Then, as we enter the Kingdom, the treasures appear, jewels of faith, silks woven of trust, pearls of great price... The treasures we find in the Word of God and in the Counsel of the Holy Spirit are treasures we cannot take to the bank down the street, but we can deposit them in our hearts and in the bank of the Kingdom. They can never be stolen nor lost there for there is no stock market and there are no thieves in the Kingdom of God. The one treasure we will find most precious is the willingness and obedience of Jesus to endure the Cross. Of course, He wanted to avoid it if there was any other way, but when none could be found, He drank the cup and became the curse for us, being afflicted in His flesh, shedding His blood to cleanse you and me, the mercy seat, the cursed earth and the saints that had carried the Seed forward since the day of Adam. He arose more glorious than rubies or diamonds, more glorious than the sunrise or the most beautiful sunset, and more precious than the bride He adores... The bride would be nothing without Him...she would not exist without Him...she would not have a beautiful gown or a beautiful redemption or a beautiful tomorrow without Him. He is the treasure... Such a treasure is more valuable to men than rifles and missiles against a formidable foe – such a treasure is more powerful than the invasion of any enemy. With such treasure within us, beside us, before us and behind us, with such treasure pleading with us to believe – only believe – we are indeed blessed, and if so blessed in the here and now, how much more than this shall we be blessed in the eternity to come… Joan Krempel
|